Computer Communication Illiteracy Rate

As I had said on Edmodo I am not very proficient with usage of electronics, but while doing this 48-hour stint of logging my time on my networking devices I realized that I do use them more often than I thought. For instance, in my log I used my cell phone about 4 hours a day, between replying and reading text messages or answering phone calls. The main purpose of my cell-phone use is for social networking, and keeping in touch with my parents. I used my iPod a good amount because I drove home over this long Labor Day weekend which was a 3-hour car ride each way. My choice of media usage and length directly relates to what I am doing that day, normally I don't use my iPod at all but because it was a special circumstance I did use it. Also I found that my YouTube video viewing was higher than normal, the media usage was high because my friend and I were playing at open mic night and people put up videos of us on the web so naturally we wanted to check them out, we also were researching some prospective band covers to do for next week's open mic night. Every week my usage of certain social networking devices varies, it is directly related to what I am doing that week because my schedule is constantly changing. At my workplace I use a walkie-talkie to communicate across the retail store and to stock in the back room, depending on how many hours I work that week will dictate my  frequency of usage on such devices. The purpose of my media use is for many different reasons, pleasure while watching YouTube videos or using the walkie-talkies for work and e-mail for school-related topics.

Google Plus

Google Plus is a new social media venture by the team at Google. Google has tried before with Orkut and Google Buzz but they never took off as planned. Buzz has been ditched in favor of Google Plus, however Orkut is still popular in Brazil but never took off anywhere else.

Google plus is a mixture of different social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and others. Like Facebook it allows people to post statuses, pictures, videos, edit your profile and the +1 (like Facebook's like). So like any other social media platform it allows for two way communication.

One unique thing that Google Plus has that blends ideas from most social network sites is Circles. Circles are the Google Plus way of following someone, however you can sort them into different categories like a Facebook list. You can sort whose posts you see by these circles or you can post things just for certain circles. So it makes communicating more efficient if you want to get a message out to a certain crowd. Say you're having a birthday party and you want to let your family know, you can post it just to your family circle, easy as that.

Google Plus also has a tool called Hangouts, it allows for 10 people to video chat at once. The people in the chat can also jointly create a document, draw or share pictures. This allows for easy collaboration and communication through webcams and the use of the different things you can do while video chatting.

Google Plus however has an identity crisis however. Is it a social networking site like Facebook where it's about your actual self or is it an open identity where you can post content or whatever you feel like Twitter or Blogs. It appears as if Google Plus wants to go towards more of an actual self with deleting pseudonyms on the site. But with the new What's hot on Google+ it seems as if they want more of an open approach.

Google Plus is trying to put all of the best features of Social Networking sites that allow people to communicate easily. However the site isn't the best utilization since not everyone isn't on it. Google is the leading search engine in the world but most people don't think of it as the communication hub of their life. Google Plus could be great for all kinds of computer mediated communication but with Facebook, Twitter and all the other Social Networks out there it kind of falls flat. People are already on one place and they don't need another for the same exact communication features.

Brainshark: Why it is beneficial for your business

Brainshark is a website that allows the user to upload presentation slides to the internet.  Presentations can be viewed on smartphones and tablets as well, basically wherever a consumer can get internet, and as many times as they would like.  There are different levels that the user can signup for with Brainshark.  The most basic level is free and not private, and as the levels increase towards the enterprise level, security tightens and the price increases.

The Brainshark homepage is extremely clean and simple to navagate.  As a potential customer, you are not bombarded by unnecessary information.  There is an ‘Introduction to Brainshark’ video, and two bolded links to ‘SEE A DEMO’ or ‘TRY IT FOR FREE’. 

The homepage also has icon links that bring you to Brainshark’s LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.  These links allow you to research the company more, and give you a way to easily contact them.

What affordances does a Brainshark Presentation have for your business?

The enterprise feature would be ideal for bosses or team leaders to communicate presentations to their employees and group members.  Most business people today are able to create a ‘Powerpoint Presentation’ on their computers, which is the basis of making a Brainshark presentation.  

After uploading the presentation to Brainshark, you can add categories and tags to your presentation so that it is easily searchable and identifiable.  Presentations created on Brainshark can be put into categories and tags, which allow for people to filter through other presentations and find ones relevant to what they are searching for.

The next step, which is optional, is adding audio (as a voice over) to your presentation.  This can be done by using either your computers microphone, or by using a phone and calling a specific Brainshark number and entering your presentations code.

If you decide you need to edit your presentation after that point, the website makes it easy to navigate what exactly you need to change.  You can add more slides (including a video slide).  You can also add notes to each slide, which only you as the presenter can see.

Brainshark also allows you to add a poll or survey question slide to your presentation.  This gives your audience a change to offer feedback to a specific topic of the presentation, or the presentation as a whole.

Of course, you will need to share your presentation with others.  Brainshark offers an easy way to share your presentation through email as well as social sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and more.  Or, you can embed the link to your company website or blog.

Employees, or whoever your presentation’s consumer is, can view the presentation wherever they have access to Internet.  This allows them to view the presentation on their own time and as many times as needed.  This is beneficial to the employees and the business because there wouldn’t need to be a scheduled time for bosses and employees to meet, and the employees will not be away from any potential clients.

All presentations have feedback in the form of a 5-star rating system, and ‘Comments and Reviews’ box.  Under the enterprise feature, you can retrieve detailed viewing reports (easily accessible when you log in and view a specific presentation) and a guestbook for your presentation. 

All information for this post was taken from (http://www.brainshark.com/) by watching demonstrations and creating a presentation to personally understand the process.

Almost At

When choosing new technologies, Almost.At was a way of communicating that I never heard of previously. Almost.At makes it possible to communicate with each other in real time. Almost.At is a very interesting application to research about. It is a site, developed by Iphone developer David Cann, that allows people to follow events and communicate in real time. What makes this different from Twitter and other social networks is the organized layout, and you can see who is actually attending an event instead of just talking about it. The layout of the site is something that catches your eye when you first see it. It is a very polished organize layout that prevents any real confusion. The left column has live events with the numbers of views that are actually happening, as well as recent events where you can still see the streaming feed. When you click on an event you see three more columns. The first column is labeled “Text”, the next is labeled “Photos and Videos” and the third column is labeled “Links”. For example, when you got to Almost.At, one of the events shown under the recent tabs is the 2011 NBA Draft. When you click it there is a long stream of texts of tweets talking about the event. The middle column has pictures of some basketball players and other photos related to the event and the next column has Youtube videos, articles, twitterpicture links and more that all relate to the event. What also makes it interesting on the bottom there is a timeline at the bottom that you can browse through the history of the event and it updates/goes back to the previous streams of the event. The way to differentiate between the people who are talking about it and actually going, you can click the + button on the side of the tweet and it adds them to a Followees list. This makes all of the attending people more able to communicate in real time about the event. Overall, this application is appealing to people with all of the options and ability the site has.

How has the internet changed the way we communicate? Hurricane Irene

This blog is a class project for a course in computer mediated communication.  Looking back over the last 5 years of syllabi for this course, the focus on CMC has shifted from static text only (web pages, web 1.0) to interaction/discourse (social networks, blogs, web 2.0) to the semantic and visual web (netflix, google, youtube, web 3.0 and visuaweb).

We still have web pages, blogs, social networks, search engines, and browsers like 10 years ago, but how they are used has changed.  To demonstrate how the combination of communication technologies available are used in tandem to tell a story, we can look at how Irene was reported in Upstate New York and New England.

Almost three years ago, our region had a serious ice storm that resulted in power outages and extensive damage. At the time, we had a battery run TV, a landline telephone, and a laptop (without internet connection because of no electricity).  We received information about the closures, power outages, and damage usually with a half day lag.  

When Irene hit, the TV stations used twitter, facebook, and youtube to collect information, photos, and videos about what was happening where. My daughter's friends kept in touch as they were being evacuated (which still was done by going door to door).  A record of what happened where is still available in multiple places.  

One of the roads I traveled regularly for a year between Albany and Brattleboro, VT

was washed out ,isolating residents, and yet we heard about it within minutes of it happening and had images of it the next day.  I lived and studied  in Brattleboro for a year, and I was able to see all the familiar places underwater the evening it happened.  The blog from the UAlbany department of atmospheric and environmental science interpreted the science behind the hurricane and provided a good record of what was going on in our area scientifically.

All of these technologies together tell the story in a different way, sometimes providing targeted information and other times interpreting the information.  Individuals are able to follow the stories using the types of communication and information that makes understanding accessible.  Most internet users identify the tools to communicate and create meaning that will be significant for them.

In the weeks to come, I hope that followers of this blog will find student insights on the affordances of communication technology, apps, and software to be useful in choosing technology and strategies that will improve communication.